Moonbeam
by Niki Bogwater
Summary: Oneshot. A little Shinx has her first encounter with a Pokemon Trainer, and the experience will change her life forever. Based on a (sort of) true story. Dedicated to the memory of my precious kitty, Pepper.


My whiskers twitch as a light breeze rustles through the grass. It's a good day to be on the prowl. Suddenly, I hear somebody coming. A human! Mama warned me about them. They catch Pokemon like me and stuff them into tiny balls and make them fight. I crouch low in the grass and wait for the human to pass. It looks like a boy-human. I've seen a few of them. This one has black hair and a red hat. He's holding a Poke Ball in one hand and a weird flat thingy with buttons in the other. Probably something to torture his Pokemon with. I shudder and cower farther back.

Soon he passes, and I can frisk about normally again. I love to play, even if it's just chasing my own tail. A few of my brothers and sisters are on the prowl here too, but they don't want to play with me. They want to fight humans.

I hear someone else running through the grass, and I scurry to the foot of a nearby tree and scramble up it, peering down at the human from the shelter of the branches. This one is a girl-human. She has black hair too, but she wears a white, softer-looking hat than the boy-human did.

Suddenly, I see my big sister jump out at her. My sister bares her little fangs and swishes her tail. She looks very scary. The girl-human pulls out a Pokeball and presses the button in the middle, and out pops this little turtle-thing with a brown shell, and a leaf growing on its head. I had never seen this kind of Pokemon before. It gives a raspy little call and tackles my sister. I mew in fear, but quickly hush myself. I can't let this horrible human spot me.

My sister lands with a thud on the ground, and hits her head on a rock. Her eyes close and her tongue lolls out of her mouth. What a horrible human! What if she had killed my big sister? My eyes water at the thought and I accidentally let out a plaintive mew. The girl-human doesn't seem to notice. She kneels next to my sister and runs a hand over her fur, looking upset.

"Percy!" she says, looking at her turtle-Pokemon. "I can't catch her if she's fainted! You need to go easy on the Shinx if we spot them!" The turtle-Pokemon hangs its head in shame, and brushes up against the girl-human's leg in apology. She sighs and picks him up, letting him rub his head against her chin. He looks...happy. He's smiling, and I can hear a little squeaky sound, like purring. "I know," the girl-human says with a small smile. "You just want to protect me. I'm sorry for getting upset, Percy. You're a good Turtwig, and I'm lucky to have you as my Pokemon. It's just that I'm starting to get frustrated. I've been searching for the perfect Shinx for hours. This one looked like she would have made a nice Pokemon for my team, but you...well, we both overdid it." The Turtwig rubs below her chin again and makes a squeaky-purr noise in sympathy. The girl-human pats him on the head and opens his Pokeball again. A beam of light comes out of the Pokeball, and the Turtwig jumps right into it without hesitation. He shrinks into the light as he falls into the ball, and the girl-human closes it. She looks at my sister one more time before walking off.

I rush to my sister as soon as the girl-human is gone, and she starts to wake up. Her head has a little bruise on it, but she's alright. That day, though, my big brother gathers all of us Shinx and says that the girl-human has even caught some of our family. But they said she let them go. But my big brother doesn't want to risk any of us getting caught, so we all split up into little groups and move to different areas. This happens all the time. All Shinx are a part of my family, so wherever there are Shinx, I can be happy. I follow my big brother through the woods, and soon, we find a nice grassy field outside of a big human city. It smells faintly of berries here, and there are nice little ponds to play in, and warm tree hollows to hide in. Soon we're all settled down again, and I go back to playing. Sometimes humans come out from the city, but they don't go into the grass very often. So far, none of us Shinx have been caught.

It's a little later in the day, when I'm playing by a big tree, when I see the girl-human and the boy-human again. This time, they walk together, on the path just outside of the big human city. They're talking about something, and I hide in the grass and listen.

"My goal is to find a female Shinx to be the leader of my team. I've searched all over Route 202," says the girl-human sadly. "But I never found the perfect one. I want a Shinx to be my best friend, just like Percy. I can't have a team of Pokemon if they don't trust me. So far, all the Shinx I've been able to catch were either too feisty or too homesick to listen to me, so I let them go again. I just wish I knew where to find the perfect Shinx..."

The boy-human pats her shoulder sympathetically. "I've found over the past few months that I can't find Pokemon on my own. They find me. Just keep working on the Pokedex for the Professor, and I'm sure the right Shinx will find you when it's ready. Pokemon won't respond to a Trainer unless they feel attracted to them. Why don't you try training here around Route 204? I hear that Shinx have been spotted around here sometimes. And there are always lots of rookie Trainers that want to battle. Listen, I have to go now. Professor Rowan wants me to get some Pokedex entries from the Oreburgh Mine. But I'll see you later, okay Claire?"

"Okay. Good luck, Lucas," the girl-human says. The boy-human waves and walks back through the city. The girl-human walks along the path. Soon another girl-human stops her. She blocks her path and says something that makes the Claire-human look mad. They both take out their Pokemon and have a battle.

I watch as this girl-human, Claire, directs her Turtwig. She's always careful to use the right moves and avoid letting him get hurt too badly. I get a thrill out of watching her. And the Turtwig looks so happy when they win, and the Claire-human hugs him. They're having...fun. My tail twitches in excitement. They're not battling ferociously, they're _playing_. The other girl-human's Pokemon (I heard the Claire-human call it a Bidoof) wakes up after a minute, and the Turtwig touches his paw to hers in a gesture of friendship, as the Claire-human does the same with the other girl-human, who says that the Claire-human is very strong.

I carefully follow the Claire-human as she explores the little meadow. She play-fights with two more humans, a boy-human and a girl-human, and she and her Turtwig win every time. She _is_ strong. Sometimes, a mew of excitement escapes me as I watch them play-fight, and I have to crouch extra low so she doesn't see me. But then it occurs to me, as she says goodbye to the last human, that I don't need to hide. This Claire-human is fun, and I want to go with her, and live in a ball, and play-fight with other Pokemon and see new places. I decide right then and there that I want to go with her, so as she turns to head back through the grass towards the human-city, I jump out at her, gnashing my teeth like my big sister does. She gasps, but suddenly, she looks very happy. Her Turtwig jumps forward and we wrestle for a few minutes. Soon, I'm feeling quite tired. I'm going to fall asleep soon, and I'll lose the play-fight, and then I'll never see the nice Claire-human again!

I mew anxiously, and wonder if she'll understand. I don't know if she did or not, but she takes out a little red ball, just like the one the Turtwig lives in, and calls her to her Pokemon to back off. At first, I'm worried that the play-fight has already ended, and I feel sad. Then, she throws the Pokeball at the ground in front of me, and I'm being sucked into a bright light, closer and closer to the ball. It's scary. I start to kick and thrash, mewing in fear. But then, I land on something soft. I open my eyes and see a grassy meadow, exactly like the one I used to live in. I walk around for a bit. It's nice and warm in here. There's water in a little pond, and when I taste it, it's the best I've ever had. But when I look up, I can see the little glass button of the Pokeball, and I can see out at the world. I'm enclosed inside my own little ball-world, and I like it. The Claire-human looks at the ball happily, and I mew hello as I see her face through the glass button. It looks like it's a window in the sky, but I know it's actually a button in the ball, even though it looks like there's a whole sky in here.

Soon we're walking. I can feel my ball swaying in time to the Claire-human's footsteps, and I like the feeling. The grass in my ball rustles as I sway, but the water in my little pond stays still. I like it in here. I want to live here forever. I hope I can.

Soon, I see the human city through the glass button-window in my ball. I put my paws against the glass and watch more humans go by. The Claire-human walks inside a building with an orange roof, and hands my ball to a pretty lady. For a moment, I'm scared that she's giving me away, and I mew fearfully, scratching at the button-window. The lady plugs my ball into a weird-looking machine, and there's a soft glow. Soon I fall asleep, but only for a second, because then the glow leaves and I wake up, as strong as ever and completely healed.

The Claire human takes me back (which I'm very relieved at) and goes to sit on a seat by the wall. She opens up the Pokeball, and I jump out, turning back into my usual-sized self as the light pulls me out again. The Claire-human smiles at me and scratches my head. That feels so good...I purr happily and lick her hand. I wonder if she likes to play. She takes out a weird flat thing with buttons, the same thing I saw the boy-human holding before, and I'm scared for a moment. But she shows it to me. There's a picture on the screen. A picture of...Me! She says that the flat thing is her Pokedex, and she keeps records about me inside of it, like a journal.

Then she pets me again and says, "My name is Claire, and I am so happy you chose me to be your Trainer. We're going to have so much fun together, and see so many new places. Would you like that?" I mew enthusiastically, wagging my swishy tail. She giggles and scratches my back. Ooooooh, that feels nice...I purr some more. "Now I don't think you have a name yet, do you?" she says, looking at me thoughtfully. I cock my head in confusion. Name? Isn't that what you're called? I realize I've never actually been called anything before. Most of my Shinx family just communicated with mews, and one loud mew meant everyone nearby should listen, and a softer one meant only the closer ones should pay attention. I'd never had a name.

I mew at Claire again, and she scratches behind my ear. "Let's see, we'll need to get you a name..." She looks at the golden star at the end of my tail. "Star...Starry...no. Galaxy...planets...something in the night sky. Ummmm...moon...Moony? No. Moon is good though...Moonbeam!" I like the sound of the word she just said. She smiles and picks me up, looking me in the eye. "You are Moonbeam," she says to me. I mew happily. Moonbeam...it sounds so nice in my ears. "You are Moonbeam," she says again. "And you are one of my best friends."

I like the sound of _that_ even better.

**A/N: I'm still recovering from the loss of my dear cat, but I've found that writing has helped me heal emotionally, even if it's only little things like this. And before you say it, yes, Claire IS me. I got the inspiration for the story while I was playing Pokemon Diamond (love that game). Whenever I start a new game, the first Pokemon I always look for is a Shinx, because the Luxray (final evolution of Shinx) is my favorite Pokemon. I usually want a female Shinx with the ability "Intimidate." I spent literally an hour just wandering through the grass outside of Sandgem, but I didn't find the right Shinx. I finally decided to move on and wait for a Shinx to come to me, and suddenly, the right one popped up outside of Jubilife City. I named her Moonbeam and she gave me the inspiration for the story. I know it's not much, but it was fun to write, and writing it helped heal some of the pain of losing Pepper (read the last chapter of "Shadows of Adulation to hear Pepper's story).**

**Dedicated to the memory of my precious kitty, Pepper.**

**-Niki Bogwater**


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